This comes fresh off the Madrid press. Well not fresh exactly but outrageous nonetheless. Ramon Calderon has again, not surprisingly, opened his mouth. Consider this from the Telegraph:

Continue reading “So How Does One Define Tapping Up?”

Morning all from the Red Rants towers — er, I don’t think I’ve greeted anyone like this before.

Let’s quickly settle down to what we do best — rounding up the news stories of the day (and yesterday).

Continue reading “Saha, Giggs and Agents, EVDS and Other Stories”

1. Employ a Spanish waiter to go to the podium and scream at the top of his voice that he’s interested to sign one of their players — preferably under the glare of Sky, BBC, ITV or whoever is interested.

2. Wait for their Chairman to go mental and report your club for ‘tapping up’ / ‘improper conduct’ or whatever sophisticated jargon the Cambridge educated bloke may choose to word his accusation with.

3. Apologise and admit that the comments made by the manager (or Spanish waiter, however applicable) was inappropriate and make a donation to the Tottenham Hotspur Foundation.

4. Throw some money and sign the player.

Spurs fans, nothing personal: the proof is in the pudding.

We can’t do the same though, because Fergie has denied making an open statement about Berbatov. Bah!

A friendly game that I managed to watch in full — the unofficial 39th game everyone was talking about — ended in a rather one sided affair. I don’t read too much into pre-season fixtures anyway, but it’s a welcome distraction from the other transfer rumours that fill football websites in the summer.

Continue reading “Scholes & Co. Stomp All Over Sailorboys”

Everyone seems to agree that Manchester United have completed the signing of Carlos Tevez for £32m. Everyone, except the official site, who haven’t yet confirmed anything.

Just how they managed to get the exact figure remains to be seen, but £32m for Tevez? Really?

Continue reading “Tevez for £32m? Tevez Quotes Denied + Kaizer Chiefs Friendly”

Various media outlets, including the Guardian, have run up headlines like ‘Tevez: Let Ronaldo go to Real’ or ‘Ronaldo should be allowed to go to Real - Tevez’.

Here is what the actual quotes look like, in English (considering these have been translated from Spanish, surely):

Continue reading “Irresponsible Media Stir Up Another Storm”

Alex Ferguson, according to a story on the Guardian today, admitted that Rooney’s real position is through the middle either upfront or just behind.

On first glance it may appear like an admission of past mistakes but it could also mean that he’s fairly confident about snaring Berbatov from Spurs.

Continue reading “Fergie Comes Around On Rooney”

There have been requests for a fantasy football league to be setup in the comments, so I thought I’d do it. I just wasn’t sure if it would keep up the attention span of people for an entire season, but hey, if there are prizes to be won, then I guess that is enough motivation.

Anyway, here is how you join:

Continue reading “Join 08/09 Red Rants Fantasy Football. Win Prizes!”

Every one has been talking about Crissy R’s interview to ESPN. Yes, I know, it’s impossible to have him out of the news beyond five minutes. One would expect him to echo Fergie’s views following the meeting with him in Lisbon — that he’s a Manchester United player for this coming season.

But, suddenly, he seems to have become a person of God — ‘Only God knows my future’ was apparently the loose translation of what he said, when asked about his future. [Is he playing the God card in his bid to win the Player of the Year, following in the footsteps of Jesus-boy, Kaka, who pipped him last time round?]

Perhaps, he’s talking about his long term future? Even so, it would not be unreasonable if one thought St. Cristopher Ronaldo might satisfy us with the divine words: ‘I am a Manchester United player for this season’, thus legitimising the claim of a mere mortal like Alex Ferguson. But the saint thinks it is not the time, yet.

We wait in hope…

Meanwhile, anyone with knowledge of Spanish — the language the saint chose to give his sermon to the ESPN hack — kindly translate and confirm that the translated quotes in the media aren’t taken out of context. One could never entirely decipher the cryptic words of the divine, can one?

Here’s the video:

Meanwhile, an apostle of the saint, Ramon Calderon, has not given up hope in the first coming of his messiah. We applaud his faith.

Also, saint Cristopher has showered his grace, so to speak, on four women, according to the Daily Mirror.

This will be pretty brief because I couldn’t watch much of the friendly between United and the Kaizer Chiefs. It’s not that I want to be very hard on the players considering it’s pre-season but, from what I saw of the match, I thought the display was disjointed.

Wayne Rooney huffed and puffed, and was very angry for some reason; seeing a yellow for his efforts. [Was he miffed to see himself in South Africa when he could have continued to have an extended honeymoon with Colleen? One can't say for sure.]

Tevez was alright, but most of the kids were, for lack of a better word, pants. Fraizer showed some occasional good touches, but I was none too impressed. Which leads me onto a few questions:

Continue reading “On the Kaizer Chiefs Friendly + Rodrigo Possebon”